My God, Permit Me Not To Be

Verse 1

My God! permit me not to be A stranger to myself and Thee: Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove, Forgetful of my highest love.

Verse 2

Why should my passions mix with earth, And thus debase my heavenly birth? Why should I cleave to things below, And let my God, my Saviour, go?

Verse 3

Call me away from flesh and sense; Thy sovereign word can draw me thence: I would obey the voice divine, And all inferior joys resign.

Verse 4

Be earth, with all her cares, withdrawn; Let noise and vanity be gone; In secret silence of the mind, My heaven, and there my God, I find.

Verse 5

Amen.